6 de Octubre
We woke up, on the bus, and had something to eat. When the bus stopped, we got off and got onto another bus. And when that had finished we had lunch and got on a third and final bus to........ Nazca, wich is famous for the Nazca lines! In Nazca we found a hostal, and visited a friend of Dad's called Victoria that he met when he last came to Peru, then ate some Chifa (the Peruvian name for chinese food), and went to bed.

7 de Octubre
Whilst we were having breakfast, Victoria came to see us. She let us try some Peruvian plants to eat, I wasn't so keen on all of them. When we finished eating we got on a bus to the lines.
The Nazca lines are lines and figures in the desert. They were made about 3,000 years ago. First we went to the viewing tower where we saw the frog (or hands) and the tree. The lines were massive and awesome. When we had finished gazing at these lines we walked up a hill. From the top we could see millions of lines going in every direction; they were ever so straight. On the hill we found a point where a lot of lines met - I wonder why they all met there?

Next we went back to town to eat some lunch. After eating we went to an almost deserted museum where we saw some (dead) Mummys - oops I mean Mummies. They were around 4,000 years old. The bodies were of the Nazca people that had died. One of the Nazca traditions was that when their ancestors died they would chop off the heads and keep them as trophies! Here we also learnt that there is a Nazca line that looks a bit like E.T! After visiting the museum we went with Victoria to some ancient aqueducts - we saw some large holes that lead to underground rivers - in one there were some ladies washing their clothes. When we finished looking we went to eat some Chifa, and go to the bus station and wait for our (late) night bus to Cusco.

8 de Octubre
We woke up on the bus, waited a bit, then the bus stopped so people could buy breakfast (we didn't because the bus lady said that there was food on the bus as well but she could not give it to us now for some strange reason). Whilst the bus was stopped a parrot attacked Jack's shoes, he looked like he was trying to eat them! When we got back on the bus and were finally given some food, veggie Dad was sad to find out that we had ham and cheese sandwiches. When the bus stopped (so we could get off and not get on again) a lady at the bus station recommended a hospedaje for us. We got a taxi to the recommended place, and settled in. The rest of the day was spent walking around Cusco, looking at lamas, getting bored of Dad admiring jigsaw like walls, eating dinner and going to bed. Oh and somewhere in between that I think we had lunch.

9 de Octubre
We woke up (in bed) then had huge crossiants for breakfast, then went to get some tickets for Machupicchu. Whilst we were doing that Dad realised that we had forgotten the torches, for camping. Mum and Dad went back up the hill to get them so Jack Granny and I stayed behind in a park. The park was strange, because we got told off for playing on the grass by a police lady, when she just ignored the other people walking on it!

When Mum and Dad came back, we went to have an almeuzas (the Spanish word for a lunch that tends to be: rice; beans; salad; fried plantains and fried egg), got on a small squished bus, to Urubamba, then a collectivo to Ollantaytambo. In Ollantaytambo Mum and Dad found a nice hotel. Next we were taken on a self tour where Granny was the tour guide. After a while Dad started taking over a bit: so I think it went a bit wrong! Near the end we went into some ruins. At the ruins there were massive stone put there by the Incredible Incas! The Incas seemed to do things the wrong way round time-wise: they first built things from massive stones jigsawed together, but then built mud buildings! We finished off the day by eating pizza cooked by a wood fire in a pizza oven.

LEGEND OF OLLANTAYTAMBO
Ollanta was a brave captain in the Inca army, who fell in love with the princess Kusi Qoyllur (meaning Happy Star), daughter of the Inca Pachacutec. He asked for her hand in marriage, but Inca society didn't permit marriage between different social classes, and his request was refused. Greatly incensed, Ollanta left Cuzco. He went as far as the town that would later be called Ollantaytambo, since it was him who took it in order to rebel against the Inca empire. After 10 years of strife captain Ruminawi (which means Stone Eyes) captured Ollanta. Tupaq Yupanqui, son of the deceased Pachacuteq, pardoned Ollanta, and gave him permission to marry his sister Kusi Qoyllur, who had already given birth to a daughter named Ima Sumac (this means How Beautiful), daughter of Ollanta.

10 de Octubre
This morning, whilst we were waiting for our late mini bus, Mum Jack and I met an (apparently) 5 year old boy called Roye. He entertained us by rolling around on the floor, and climbing on the bench, until a lady that I think must of known him told him of for showing off and rolling on the floor, and took him to his Mummy. Finally when the bus came we got on and set off along a windy mountain road. Some people from
Chile called Juan and Negrita who were sitting in front of us started playing the guitar and singing! They were really nice, Jack and I joined in by playing the maracas. The journey was really long and the road wound round and round as we climbed uphill with a really deep drop on one side, pretty scary really, especially when something came the other way and had to squeeze past without falling off the mountain.

When we finally arrived, without any disasters, Dad waved Granny off on the train and we set off on our 2 hour walk along the train track. We walked on the train line and had to jump off if we heard the train coming. There was a wobbly bridge to cross over a big river, the floor creaked with every foot step, and there were small bridges where you had to jump from sleeper to sleeper. It was a really fun walk. The last bit of the walk we had to do in the dark. We walked along by the light of the moon, looking at all the fireflies in the trees - it was so beautiful!

When we arrived we had to find our campsite, Dad decided to ask a man sitting down by the road, it was dark so we couldn't see him very well, as we got closer we realised it was granny waiting for us and she was right outside the campsite.
We set up camp, mum made some spaghetti, we went to bed ready for an early start and Machu Picchu in the morning.

11 de Octubre
Machu Picchu - the Lost City of the Inca's - was discovered about 100 years ago by a man called Hiram Bingham. It is an Inca settlement built in 1450, and abandoned in 1572. Hiram discovered it high up at the top of a 2,436 metre pointy mountain covered in jungle. The locals had named the mountain Machu Picchu which means 'Old Peak'.

This morning we set of early - Granny heads for Aguas Calientas (Spanish for hot water!!) to catch the bus, and we head for the path and loads and loads of steps. It takes us about an hour to climb to the top, it seemed to go on for ever. We keep crossing the road that the buses went up on. Eventually we get to the top and we bump into Juan and Negrita again, who are about to head down the mountain to get back on the mini bus at the hydro electric station (the place where the mini bus dropped us off yesterday) they had to be there at 2:00pm so in order to see Machu Picchu they had to get out of bed at about 4:00am! We have lots of hugs and photos then they head down and we head up.

First we went to the Sun Gate to get the famous picture of Machu Picchu then we looked at the ruins. Some of the stones on the buildings were wider than I am tall and taller than I am! The ruins were amazing! Looking back up to the sun gate, I counted 10 lamas. Half way through we went back to the entrance to eat lunch because we weren't allowed to eat inside Machu Picchu. On the way back in we meet a Korean man who was stamping his passport with a special Machu Picchu stamp. We had fun chatting to him, them went back to the ruins. After a while we decided to go to the Inca Bridge. It was a short, scary walk along the side of a cliff. When we got to the bridge we weren't very impressed. But then as Dad pointed out how did they get where the bridge was in order to put the stones there? The Inca bridge was built as a wall of stones on the side of the cliff-face to serve as a kind of bridge. A plank of wood in the middle spanned a gap which I think was there so if there were enemies attacking the Inca's could take away the wood from the middle leaving a gap so the enemies were stuck on the wrong side.

I thought Machu Picchu was great, but it left me with a lot of unanswered questions, that made me want to go back to the time of the Incas.

12TH OCTOBER BY JACK
We had a 3 hour walk along a train line and we had a picnic by the river and guess what? There were tomatoes growning there and we could pick some, but we still had half an hour to go. After the walk we got on a minibuss back to Cusco, it took 6 hours. On the way back the man had to change the brakes and we had some chips for lunch and when we got back we had chips and rice for tea but there was sausage! in the rice. Then we went to bed.

13 de Octubre
Back in Cusco today and we did nothing but go buying crazy! I got a hair band, a purse and the fluffiest slippers you have ever seen - with Alpaca fur inside. It was a fun day. We had lunch and hot chocolate from a café in the market and a funny tea of potatoes and some other vegetables that were in cheese sauce.

14 de Octubre
We spent the day on the bus to Arequipa. In Arequipa it took a while to find a hotel, but when we did we left the bags there and went to have some Chifa.

15 de Octubre
The day was spent by walking around Arequipa, getting some things here and drinking a delicious slushy. Lunch was: salad; a big bowl of soup; a plate of rice, funny sauce and a strange lasagne thing; a drink with a strange taste that I didn't like; a yogurt drink and a weird gloopy jelly thing.

16TH OCTOBER BY JACK
We got off a bus from Arequipa in Cabenaconde and wandered around the main square and then we put our bags in the hotel. We found out that there was warm water from the tap in the sink, only the second time since leaving the USA!!!! I washed my hands even though I didn't need to. Then we went up a hill and saw a BULL RING! Then we went to see a view and then we had tea in a cafe and while we were having tea on TV there was a ....BULL FIGHT! and the bull nearly KILLED a man. The bull tried to stamp on the man and then it skewered him with his horn and the other men pulled the bull's tail to make him stop and when the men were carrying the injured man back they dropped him! I think he had a big hole in his tummy. I think he will die.

17TH OCTOBER BY JACK
We got on a bus to Cruz del Condor to see some Condors. There were millions of them.Afterwards we got on a five hour bus and I made friends with a Dutch lady called Nellika who knew lots of magic spells and we played DS Lego Harry Potter together for most of the journey. We had loads of Pizza for tea.

for photos go to:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103536369297482864982/SouthAmerica201

tom grundman Im really enjoying your blog!!

Oct 23, 2013

Tammy Me too! lots of bus journeys and good food descriptions! And I especially liked Jack's bit about the bull fight. Hope that man didn't die though!

Oct 24, 2013

Grandad Gosh, you are having fun, Great. How was Daddy's Birthday. Was there cake around? Never visited the part of the world you are currently in. Always wanted to and perhaps, perhaps one day, i might just make it fascinating area is S. America. Anyway, I reckon I have at least another 40 odd years to go to make it so, watch out S.America, here comes Grandad!

Oct 24, 2013

grandma The Nazca lines sound amazing and interesting. I wonder how they made them. We werent allowed on the Inca bridge as it was too wet. I wonder how that was made too. Poor man I hope he was all right. You were lucky to see so many Condors. We only saw one he came out looked at us and flew away again. I am VERY glad that Jack has washed his hands at least twice. Lots of love. xxxx

Oct 24, 2013